The Revelations of Christopher Halliwell
by Paige M. Carter
Summary: There are a million ways Chris' true identity could've been revealed, here are just a few.
1. Migraine

Disclaimer: I own nothing here. Charmed and the character portrayed here are the property of CW and I'm not making any money off of them.

Note: This the first in what I hope will be several stories of other ways Chris' identity could've been revealed. This story takes place sometime after 'Legend of Sleepy Halliwell'. Phoebe knows about Chris, but no one else does.

Chris loved his mother and aunts, even though they didn't know who he was and treated him with suspicion and disdain most of the time, but there were times he wanted to strangle them. Today was one of those times.

He was already having a bad day to start with, he woke with the worst skull-splitting headache he could remember having in a long time. Even worse, he couldn't really take anything normal for it, since conventional medications tended to make his powers go haywire. His mother had had a whole list of potions that could cure just about any ill, without affecting his or Wyatt's powers, the problem was that to get any of those cures, he had to go to the Manor and fix them himself.

Normally, this wouldn't have been a problem because the Charmed Ones would all be at work and he could do whatever he needed to do in peace. Except that Lady Luck was being a bitch today; the Charmed Ones _and _Leo were home and all four were in a bad mood.

Chris wasn't quite sure what the problem was, but from the little he'd gleaned, the band Piper had booked for tonight had canceled at the last minute and she was having trouble finding a replacement, Paige was aggravated because of her latest temp job, and Phoebe was angry because Piper and Paige's combined anger and frustration was overriding the Empath Blocking Potion, making it hard for her to block them out and she was under a deadline for her next article; he still hadn't worked out just what Leo's deal was, though. All Chris was sure of was that their yelling and bickering was making it hard for him to concentrate on his mother's Migraine potion. Still, as long he didn't try to make sense of the argument, he could concentrate on his potion.

Then, Lady Lucky laughed at him, the argument moved into the kitchen and now he was faced with three pissed off Charmed Ones and one pissed off Elder and nowhere to run.

"Chris?! What the hell are you doing?!" Piper shrieked, turning furious eyes to the young Whitelighter at the stove.

Normally, Chris would've either ignored her or given as short an answer as he could get away with, but the combination of pain from his head and aggravation from being interrupted turned off his 'crap you never say to your mother' filter.

"What the hell does it look like I'm doing, Mom?! I'm trying to make a potion! You know, witch stuff?! Now would you all kindly shut the hell up and leave me alone?!" As he shouted, the cauldron flew off the stove and slammed against the wall near Leo's head, splattering the contents all over the place.

"Dammit!" Chris growled, burying his head in his hands and causing a couple of lightbulbs to shatter.

Everyone stared at him in shock, but before anyone else could speak, Phoebe intervened.

"Okay, I'm guessing that _you're_ the source of the horrible headache I've been feeling for the past half hour." She gently shoved past her sisters and ex- brother-in-law to Chris' side and took a good look at the young man's pale, drawn face.

"Oh, you poor thing, no wonder you're cranky. Come on, let's get you upstairs, you can lay down in my room." She took his arm and dragged him out of the kitchen, over his feeble protests, leaving Paige, Piper and Leo standing in shocked silence.

"Okay, let's get you comfortable," Phoebe murmured, as she gently pushed Chris onto her bed. She knelt down and removed his battered running shoes.

"Sorry about that, Phoebe," Chris whispered.

"It's okay, Chris, you couldn't help it. We weren't doing you any favors, either. What was that potion you were trying to make? Was it to help your head?"

Chris made a sound of acknowledgement, "Yeah, Mom used to have this whole list of potions to cure things. Mortal medications tend to make my powers go haywire."

Phoebe nodded, "Can you remember the recipe enough to tell me, so we make it for you?"

Under normal circumstances, Chris would've refused, citing 'future consequences', but his head was pounding too badly for him to refuse any help.

Phoebe wrote down what he told her and read them back, before helping him lay down. She covered him with a blanket, knowing from experience that he'd get cold as the migraine worked its way out of his system. After making sure that Chris was comfortable, she quietly slipped out of the room.

After Phoebe and Chris had disappeared upstairs, Piper, Paige, and Leo shook themselves out of their shock.

"He called me 'Mom'," Piper whispered, feeling like she was going to faint.

"I wouldn't read too much into it, Piper," Leo said, trying to be reassuring. "If Chris was in enough pain to lose control of his powers like that, he probably didn't realize what he was saying."

Paige sighed, "Well, whatever he meant, we need to clean this up, since we don't know what was in that potion."

The three of them cleaned up the splattered potion and shattered light bulbs, and carried the cauldron into the kitchen when Phoebe came back downstairs.

"How is he?" Piper asked, her maternal instincts kicking in.

"He's resting right now," Phoebe said. "I've got the recipe for the potion he was making so we can make it again."

"What is it?" Leo asked, suspiciously.

Phoebe sighed, "Apparently his mother had come up with a potion to help with migraines because regular medication messes with his powers."

Leo nodded, "That makes sense. Anything very strong would definitely make his powers unstable." After the display they'd just seen, anything that would make Chris' powers more unstable was definitely something to avoid.

Phoebe handed Piper the recipe, "Here. You're the potion expert, I'm not sure I want to try it on my own."

"Wow. Chris's mom certainly knew her stuff," Paige said, reading the recipe over Piper's shoulder. "That would definitely ease pain and knock you out for a little bit."

"I wonder why it's written this way," Piper said, she'd never seen a recipe written like this before; it reminded her of Grams' spell to get rid of the Woogeyman.

Leo glanced at it, "Probably to make it easy to remember if the person making the potion was having trouble concentrating. Like if they had a migraine."

"Let's get to work, then," Piper said.

The potion was ridiculously easy to brew. The rhyme also told them what order to add the ingredients in and the potion came together in a snap.

"Okay," Phoebe said as the last of the potion was poured into the small potion bottle. "I'll take this upstairs and…"

"No!" Piper exclaimed, snatching up the bottle. At everyone's look, "I'll take it up to him. Make sure we brewed this correctly."

"Piper," Leo said, knowing why she was suddenly volunteering.

Piper ignored him, "_I'll_ take it up to him. I want to." With that, she marched up the stairs.

Phoebe's room was dark, but Piper could see Chris curled up under the covers. He looked very young and vulnerable, very different from the neurotic, jaded Whitelighter she saw every day.

She knelt down and gently shook his shoulder, "Chris?"

Chris stirred and opened his eyes, "Mom?" The hope in his voice pulled at her heart and made her want to cry.

Piper smiled, "Yeah, sweetie, it's me. I've got your medicine." She knew Leo wouldn't approve, but it surely wouldn't hurt to give the young Whitelighter some comfort when he was so ill.

She helped him sit up and drink the potion, rubbing his back, like she would do with Wyatt.

Chris laid his head on her shoulder, "I miss you so much, Mom."

Piper bit her lip, "I miss you too, sweetie. Pretty soon, you'll figure out what's after Wyatt and then you'll be home."

"Won't be the same," Chris mumbled. "You won't be there. Ev'n if I save Wyatt, you'll still be gone, just like Bianca."

Piper's heart stopped, a million questions running through her mind, but she forced them back, "You don't know that. If you can do this, everything will change and I'll be there, waiting on you."

This seemed to comfort Chris and he was quiet. When Piper was sure he was asleep, she eased him back down onto the bed and made sure he was covered with the blanket before slipping out of the room.

Everyone was waiting when Piper came downstairs, "Did you give it to him," Phoebe asked.

Piper nodded, "Yeah, he's asleep now." She ran a hand through her hair, "He called me 'Mom' again."

Leo sighed, "Piper,"

"I don't think he called me that because he was sick. He said it to me twice and told me that saving Wyatt wouldn't change anything because I was gone, just like Bianca."

Leo wasn't convinced, but Paige nodded.

"It makes sense. Chris knows us, knows the house. Remember what he said after he got the Stillman Sisters to turn on each other? 'In all my life, I've never seen you take the bait the way they did.'? He'd only been our Whitelighter two months then."

"That doesn't mean anything," Leo argued, trying to ignore what his own gut was saying, "Maybe he's your Whitelighter in the future."

Phoebe bit her lip, she wanted to tell them what she'd learned in her vision quest, but she wasn't sure Chris would appreciate his secret being revealed this way.

Suddenly, she realized that her sisters and Leo were looking at her suspiciously.

"Phoebe? Why do I get the feeling you know something about this?" Piper asked, watching her younger sister's face.

Phoebe gulped, trying to figure out how to get out of this without spilling Chris' secret. However, Leo could read her like a book.

"He _is_ our son, isn't he?" Leo said with growing horror.

Phoebe gulped and nodded, "Yeah, he is. I only found out because of that vision quest I went on."

Piper collapsed on the sofa, "Oh my God, I threw my own son out of the house and told him I didn't want to see him again." Suddenly, every little dig and mean thing she'd said to Chris flooded back. "He must hate me so much."

"Sweetie, you didn't know, Chris doesn't hate you. From what little he's told me about his life, he adores you. YOU were the one who came up with the potion for his headaches and a way for him remember it."

"Actually, Piper may have developed the recipe, but the rhyme sounds like your work, Phoebs," Paige said, softly.

"Well, whoever did it, it's obvious that it was with him in mind," Phoebe said.

"So, what do we do now?" Leo asked, still trying to come to terms with the fact that the man he despised and had been trying to get rid of was his own son. Suddenly, he realized that all the things about Chris that annoyed or infuriated him were things about himself or Piper that he didn't like.

Piper sighed, "We need to let him recover. If he doesn't remember telling us, then we might scare him by confronting him and he's skittish enough as it is."

They'd wait until Chris felt well enough to talk and then they were going to get everything out into the open; no more lies or secrets. Then they were going to work together to save Wyatt from the future Chris came from; only this time they were going to do it together, as a family.

The End


	2. Home Again

Note: This is AU! Season 6. Gideon was discovered before he could grab Wyatt, so Chris never died. This is set post 'Sleepy Halliwell'.

P3P3P3P3P3P3P3P3P3P3P3P3P3P3P3P3P3P3P3P3P3P3

"This really isn't necessary," Chris tried to argue for the thousandth time, "I can get back to my own timeline."

Leo and the Charmed Ones shook their heads, "No, Chris, we want to go with you and see what's going on. We need to be sure that Wyatt is safe and that it's safe for you to go back home."

Chris sighed; they'd been having this argument for two days now, ever since Chris had discovered Gideon's mirror to the other universe and realized that it was Gideon who was after Wyatt. Gideon had been destroyed by the Elders, who'd been horrified by his attempts to kill a child and his use of Darklighters to try and kill one of his own.

Now that the danger was gone, Chris was ready to go back to his own timeline, but the Charmed Ones and Leo were reluctant to let him go back by himself. He suspected that they wanted to somehow prove that he'd been lying the whole time about Wyatt, even the realization that Wyatt had been in danger.

"Chris, we believe you," Phoebe said, trying to defuse the situation, "but if Wyatt's still in danger, we need to know about it so we can stop it. All we want to do is make sure that Gideon was the only one behind the conspiracy."

Chris sighed and nodded, even though they weren't giving him much of a choice. "Okay, but just be careful, I don't want you learning too much about the future." At their nods, he turned towards the wall, "Okay, let's do this."

He recited the spell and the triquetra began to glow. After taking a collective deep breath, the group walked through the portal.

When they came through to the other side, they all frowned.

"I don't think it worked, the attic looks the same," Piper said. Phoebe, Paige, and Leo nodded in agreement.

Chris, however, was looking around the attic with hopeful eyes; he could see the Book of Shadows in its proper place, he could see items from his childhood stacked in boxes. The room was bright and sunny, not the gloomy hellhole it had been the last time he'd traveled to the future.

Suddenly, a sweet scent wafted into the attic, catching everyone's attention.

"You weren't baking cookies when we left, were you, Piper?" Phoebe asked.

"You know I don't like to leave the stove on when we're getting ready to do a spell," Piper replied, confusion crossing her face.

The group made its way down the stairs, noting the subtle changes to the Manor. The rooms were decorated differently, the paint looked fresher, but it was still the Manor all of them remembered.

As they entered the kitchen, they were all surprised at the familiar scene, and the familiar face sitting at the table.

It was Prue, who looked exactly as she had the day Shax had killed her, reading the newspaper, just like always.

Before any of the Charmed Ones or Leo could say anything, Chris whispered, "Aunt Prue?"

Prue looked up and a big smile crossed her face, "Chris! You're back!" She ran over and threw her arms around him.

The Charmed Ones and Leo stared in surprise as Chris hugged Prue with a smile that matched hers.

"Oh, my big, hero nephew! I'm so glad you're home, we were starting to get worried that something had gone wrong."

Chris looked at her in wonder, "So everyone – Mom and the aunts-"

Prue smiled, "Everyone's fine and they're all eager to see you!" She turned toward the dining room, "Chris is home!"

There was a sudden thundering of feet and the Charmed Ones came into the room and the past stared in shock at the future.

Phoebe was leading the charge, as always, her hair had some gray streaks, there were laugh lines around her eyes and mouth, but she was the same Phoebe.

"Oh, there's the returning hero!" Future!Phoebe squealed, throwing her arms around Chris. "Oh, we've missed you!"

"I've missed you too, Ph-Aunt Phoebe," Chris said, hugging her tightly.

"Yeah, you're gonna have to get used to calling me 'Aunt' again," Future!Phoebe laughed.

"Hey, no hogging all the hugs. I want mine," Future!Paige said. She too had gray hairs and laugh lines, but she was just like she always was.

"If you two are done, I'd like to welcome my son home," Future!Piper said, quietly.

Chris stared at his mother, not wanting to believe that she was really there, that this whole crazy idea had actually worked. "Mom?"

Future!Piper smiled and opened her arms and Chris ran into them, gratefully.

"You did it, Peanut, just like I knew you would. You just needed to have a little faith in yourself."

The Charmed Ones and Leo stared at the scene in shock. None of them could wrap their heads around Chris calling Future!Piper 'Mom'.

Prue, Future!Phoebe, and Future!Paige all saw the looks on their past counterparts' faces and shot Future!Piper a look that she understood and gently pulled away.

"Sweetie, why don't you head upstairs. I've got your laundry done and I'm sure you want to relax in your own room after camping out at P3 for so long."

Chris seemed to sense what was going on, but he smiled, "Sure, Mom. Did I smell cookies earlier?"

Future!Piper laughed, "Here, fresh from the oven."

After Chris and his cookie had disappeared up the stairs, the future Charmed Ones faced the past.

"We need to talk," Future!Piper said softly, gesturing to the dining room.

The Charmed Ones and Leo collapsed into the chairs.

"This isn't happening," Piper said. "I didn't just spend the last year with my son and didn't recognize him."

"Yeah, you did," her future self said, sympathetically. "Don't worry, though, Chris doesn't hold a grudge, and after you leave, he won't remember any of this anyway."

The stunned group looked at her, "He won't remember this?" Phoebe asked.

Future!Piper shook her head, "According to the Elders, once Chris stopped Gideon from kidnapping Wyatt, he stopped the chain of events that caused Wyatt to turn evil. So, Chris never needed to go to the past, and so won't remember how you treated him or going to the past at all."

"So, if we've already changed the future, why do you remember?"

"The Elders agreed to hold back the change long enough for you to get Chris home so we wouldn't accidentally kill you. As soon as you go back, the timeline change will be completed."

"If Chris is our son, why does he hate me so much," Leo asked, still not wanting to believe that the man he'd tried to get rid of was his own child.

"Because, when Wyatt was kidnapped, he was trapped in the Underworld for weeks before we found him. The Elders worried about what kind of affect that would have on him, and I was encouraged to spend as much time as possible with him in between my Elder duties, even if it meant that I usually didn't have time for Chris," Future!Leo said, coming into the room.

"The Elders kept telling me that Chris would understand when he got older, and I convinced myself that everything would work out and that the sacrifice would be worth it if I could save Wyatt. Paige and Phoebe both married great guys who were more than willing to play 'Dad' to Chris, and so was Victor. By the time I realized the mistake in listening to people who'd been in the Heavens so long that they'd forgotten what it was to be human, or had never been human in the first place, it was too late."

"What was the wake up call," Piper couldn't help but ask.

"It was Chris' eleventh birthday. I had sworn to Piper that I would be there and I was determined to keep that promise. When I orbed down, I found out that Chris had already made plans to go to watch the Giants against the Royals in the World Series with Paige's husband and the promise of me showing up hadn't changed his mind; I'd made that promise and broken it too many times."

Future!Leo's eyes filled with tears. "I told myself that it wasn't too late, that I could still fix things with Chris, but after I'd broken my promises so many times, Chris wanted nothing to do with me, especially after Piper, Phoebe, and Paige were killed in front of him the day after his fourteenth birthday. I was in a meeting and had muted everyone's calls, so I didn't hear Chris screaming for me. By the time I heard him, it was too late, and Chris never forgave me."

"He didn't really hate you, at least at first," Prue said, sympathetically. "If Chris hadn't loved you so much, he wouldn't be so angry."

Future!Leo turned to his past self with a sad smile, "But you have a chance that I didn't. Chris isn't born yet, and you have time to make this right. You're going to have to make a choice between being an Elder and your family, choose your family, otherwise you'll lose everything." He glanced upstairs, "I'm gonna go upstairs and welcome him home."

"Better wait until we get them sent back," Future!Piper said. "The timeline change won't be finished until then."

Suddenly, there was a swirl of orbs and a young man appeared, "Is he back yet?"

"Wyatt, I thought we told you to wait until we called you. The timeline hasn't changed yet."

"I know, but I want to see him. What I remember of the original timeline really freaks me out. I nearly killed him, Mom! Plus I killed his girlfriend!"

The time travelers stared at Wyatt in shock. The baby they all knew was now a tall, handsome man with a sunny smile on his face, that all of them knew instinctively was probably a regular part of his face.

"Honey, once the timeline's fixed, neither of you will remember any of that, there's no need to bring it up since you're just going to forget it anyway."

"Speaking of, we need to get them home before the Elders get impatient," Prue said, getting to her feet.

"I have one more question," Phoebe said, looking at her eldest sister. "How are you here? Piper and I tried for weeks to summon you and were told you weren't allowed to come back."

Prue smiled, "You'll find out in a few years, don't worry."

The time travelers nodded and rose, needing to get home and process what they'd just learned. Their future selves, except for Prue, Leo, and Wyatt, stood together and recited:

'_Send them back_

_From whence they came_

_To Time and place_

_that are the same_

_Let past be present_

_That time regain.'_

There was a swirl of light and the travelers found themselves back in the manor, but their future selves, Wyatt, Prue, and Chris were not.

There would be a lot of things to talk about, a lot of hard decisions to make in the next few days, but the Halliwells were united in the determination that Wyatt and Chris would be raised by two parents that loved them and would be there for both of them. They owed Chris that much for all he'd done for them. He deserved the happy future they'd seen, and they would make sure he got it.

The End


End file.
